Former Nightwish frontwoman Tarja Turunen has shared warm comments towards Anette Olzon, the vocalist who succeeded her in the band, revealing she recently began following Olzon on social media and “would love to give her a hug” if they ever met. In a recent interview with Brazil’s Heavy Talk, Turunen also reiterated her long-held perspective on her time with Nightwish, emphasizing that while the music endures, personal happiness remains her paramount concern.
Speaking about Anette Olzon, who is reportedly planning a tour in Brazil featuring songs from her Nightwish era, Tarja said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Actually, I started following her recently, like recently, and I did not know that she had been planning a tour… And a colleague… told me that she’s been commenting [on some of my Instagram posts], and I was, like, ‘Huh. Okay. This is all news for me,’ [laughs] which is fantastic.”
Despite their shared history as vocalists for the same iconic band, Tarja revealed, “I’ve never met her in person — I’ve never, never ever met her in person — so I would love to give her a hug. And we have a lot to talk [about] [laughs], I think. But I wish her all the best with her journey. And so I really hope she’s happy with what she’s doing. And so, yeah, thumbs up.” Currently, there are no plans for a musical collaboration between the two former Nightwish singers.
These comments come after Tarja recently elaborated on her feelings about her nearly nine-year tenure with Nightwish in a separate interview with Brazil’s Ibagenscast earlier in May. When asked if she missed anything from that period, she responded, “I don’t, actually. I don’t. Because the music lives. It lives in my heart. It lives out there. It will be forever. That will be forever. But the rest of it, I don’t.” She candidly added, “We did great albums together. We did great music together, but we were not happy, I have to say.”
For Turunen, who has enjoyed a successful solo career for two decades, personal contentment is non-negotiable. “This is the thing — the happiness is everything to me,” she explained to Ibagenscast. “Even with the people that I work [with] today, I want everybody being happy around me. It’s so important, because if you really go through this life without being happy… Music is emotion, and it starts eating you up. You need to find that love inside of you. Love, for me, was music. The first love ever in my life was music. And if I cannot express myself, really, with that love that there is in me, it’s not good. I’m not in a good place.”
Tarja Turunen was famously dismissed from Nightwish at the conclusion of their 2005 tour via an open letter published on the band’s website. In the letter, the other members of Nightwish stated, “To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with emotions have become much more important.” Nightwish leader Tuomas Holopainen later referred to the decision as “the most difficult thing I ever had to do.” Tarja, for her part, has maintained that the manner of her firing was deeply hurtful, saying, “Maybe one day I’ll forgive, but I will never forget.”
